


Seeing The Future

by theianitor



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cybernetics, Cyberpunk Slang, Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, M/M, Mentions others, Tarot, bar setting, ironically written before the game came out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28359864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theianitor/pseuds/theianitor
Summary: Sebastian accepted his drink and made his way over to the solitaire-playing man.“You’re Hamilton?” he asked. The dark-skinned man looked up, one brown, natural-looking eye and one bright red, glaring as it scanned Sebastian from head to toe.“For the right amount of credits, sure.”“They say you’re the man to talk to about the future.”
Relationships: Jenson Button/Sebastian Vettel (hinted)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Seeing The Future

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all. :) Still chugging along for that little ol' goal of mine. This was written for the Hauntober prompts list back in October (thanks Del, couldn't have done it without you!), and... well. Here it is. :) Hope you like it.

The bar was pretty crowded despite the early hour, the hard drinkers staying to themselves while the few that were finishing meals occupied the booths furthest from the bar. Sebastian had briefly looked up at the red light above the door, signaling to those in the know what lay beyond. Then he scanned the signs around the entrance before heading downstairs, leaving his leather coat on and his guns holstered. _Flying Finn’s_ was well known to be a strictly run place, and the owners didn’t accept any funny-business, whether it was from mercs, travelers, patrolmen, or normies.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a fair bit of illegal trade going on in the bar at night. It just meant any disagreements were handled well away from it, or the participants were left with parts missing and hefty doctor’s bills courtesy of the grumpy barkeep.

Sebastian held his card up and was approached by the younger of the two people behind the bar. He’d recognized Kimi, but the part-owner was busy with a gaggle of customers who seemed to in disagreement over what to order.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked with a smile. He was blond and very pretty, his hair combed to one side revealing a fresh booster with two ports, the hair around it shaved down to the skin. He was holding a glass in one hand and Sebastian noted the long scratchers carefully pinched against the glass. The hand holding the bar towel looked normal, but he’d painted his nails to match the carbo-glass of his claws. He was attractive, and had probably felt the need to protect himself at more than one time. Seb could only guess what enhancements were hidden beneath the skin-tight leather pants and the shirt-corset combo.

“A tequila Old Fashioned with a splash of beer,” Seb said, holding the card out between two fingers. “Hold the chili.”

The blond raised an eyebrow at him but accepted his card and took the credits, handing it back before he set to work making his order. Sebastian took the time to look around.

There was mostly the normal clientele, people dotted about in twos and threes, starting their night in a quiet place and moving on to livelier settings later. There was a dark-skinned Fixer in one of the booths, apparently engaged in a game of solitaire. Kimi had finished with the customers and nodded once at Seb before moving on to the next couple of credit-paying souls, his reinforced joints whirring slightly as he went.

Sebastian accepted his drink and made his way over to the solitaire-playing man.

“You’re Hamilton?” he asked. The dark-skinned man looked up, one brown, natural-looking eye and one bright red, glaring as it scanned Sebastian from head to toe. His hair was tightly braided back against his head, each braid interwoven with different-colored chrome that shone as he ended his scan and moved his head.

“For the right amount of credits, sure.”

“They say you’re the man to talk to about the future.”

Hamilton smiled, reaching for a glass set at a safe distance from his playing cards. His arm was fully mechanical, not some cheap Techie-job either but neatly worked, the movement fast and silent.

“Lots of people like to guess what the future’s gonna be,” he said, taking a sip.

“I’m not here to guess,” Sebastian said, meeting his scrutiny head on. This Fixer had probably seen and heard and _met_ way worse, but he was in Seb’s part of town. Seb put his card on the table and slid it forward, still holding Hamilton’s gaze.

“Then I’m your guy.”

Hamilton put his glass away again and took the card. He considered it between his metal fingers for a moment, and then held it out for Seb to take.

“Keep it.”

“I was told it’d cost me,” Seb said, not taking his card. “I have the credits.”

Hamilton’s mechanical eye gave him another once-over.

“I’m sure you do. You can pay after.”

He started gathering up the cards and tucked them away in an inside pocket of his blazer. It was a shiny, dark purple fabric which looked expensive, each seam embroidered with something that glittered like silver. Hamilton certainly wasn’t lacking in credits either, if appearances were anything to go by – Seb knew enough Rockerboys, however, to know that what cost a true fortune was to look artfully trashy.

Hamilton nodded at the seat opposite himself. “Sit.”

He pulled out another, larger deck of cards and started shuffling them, while Seb sat down and took a sip of his drink. It was good; a little strong, but very good.

The deck was suddenly placed before him on the table.

“Cut,” Hamilton said.

Seb looked at him, unsure of what to do. Again, Hamilton smiled at him, and Seb noted at least four teeth on the right side of the smirk which had been replaced with what he guessed was shiny steel. Whether it was just for looks, or because Hamilton had actually had other kinds of enhancements installed, he couldn’t know without getting an uncomfortably close look.

“Split the deck and put it back together.”

Seb did as he was told. Hamilton fanned the cards out.

“Pick three and don’t look at them, and don’t show me. Put them here.” He pointed to three spots on the table between them.

Again, Seb followed the instructions.

“Past, present, future,” Hamilton said, tapping his finger on one card at a time. Then, without any further explanation, he flipped the first one over.

It was a black-rimmed card with a stylized open briefcase on it. Inside the briefcase lay ten shiny silvery wrenches.

“Ten of Wrenches,” Hamilton said, looking at the card closely. “You’re coming out of trouble.”

“What?”

Hamilton glanced at him with a look that suggested he not interrupt more than absolutely necessary.

“The road, man,” he said, pointing. Behind the suitcase, there was a simplistic road, winding its way to the horizon. “You’re coming out of trouble, and you’ve been on the road, but now it’s almost done. Looking for a place to be.” He nodded to himself.

He glanced up again before flipping the next card, but he turned it resolutely and snapped it down against the table.

“Oh man,” Hamilton said, nodding to himself again.

The card had the same black rim, and showed two shiny gold cogwheels, tied together with a figure-eight. In the background there were two rows of four pistons, two raised and two down on either side.

“The two of Cogs.” He pointed needlessly to the cogs. “Flexibility and functioning machinery. Balancing resources and getting it together. Sustainability.”

He looked up with a smile, which faltered at the confused look on Seb’s face.

“Come on, man. Infinity!” He tapped at the picture of the cogs again and Seb realized that what he’d thought was just something connecting the cogs was actually an infinity symbol.

“Infinity,” Seb parroted.

“A machine that’ll run forever if you just take care of it. Two parts with the same, like, goal, giving it even force, driving it together.”

Sebastian slowly looked up. Hamilton was still looking at the card, a strange fondness in his eye. Seb had to admit he was surprised. He’d been told Hamilton was the guy to see about strangely accurate predictions of the future, but was he really so easy to read that this guy had somehow figured out what had happened before, and that he and Jenson had only just moved in together?

Hamilton gave Seb a curious look, but said nothing. Sebastian dismissed it. It wasn’t possible. Coming out of trouble, well, anyone who wanted to know about their future must be coming out of _something_ , right? Everyone hustled to get somewhere they weren’t, that wasn’t predicting anything; that was just logic. And there were a million ways to meet and react to every situation. Two parts working together might be business partners, or a new implant that agreed especially well with you.

But something about the way he’d said it made Seb feel that wasn’t what Hamilton had meant by his reading.

“Ready for the last one?”

“Yeah,” Seb said, not thinking there was really any other answer to that question.

He glanced over at the bar, where Heikki had appeared to say something to Kimi, the blond bartender who had made his drink obviously listening in. A couple on the other side of the room were just leaving their booth, both putting on long coats they had kept folded up next to them, the man donning his mirrored sunglasses despite the relative dimness of the bar.

The snap of the card against the table made him look back. Hamilton looked down at the card in silence, and Seb dared a glance.

The background was done in dull rainbow colors, all spreading out from the center point. In the middle, the shape of two people, one with their hands at the other’s hips, the other with their arms up around the other’s neck. An embrace.

“You know what man?” Hamilton said, sitting back in the booth, his eyes still on the last card. “This one’s on me.”

“What? No, I’ll pay, I have the credits, it’s-”

“It’s not about the credits!” He clenched his metallic hand and took a deep breath, reaching towards the cards and then slowing, coming to rest with his fingertips pressed against the table.

“Fuck, I wish I could explain it to you so you’d get it.”

He tapped the cards in order.

“So the past. Hard times, working through. And you’re thinking, that’s nothing special, everyone has a hard time? I don’t care, man, it’s not about everyone else. This is _you_. You left whatever it was behind, got the _tools_ you needed,” he clicked his finger against the wrenches, “and you worked through, and came out. Then you find someone to join forces with, someone who fit in your machinery, and that’s your place to be! It’s new, and you’re working on it, but you’ve made the right choices so far. And then...”

He looked like he was about to tap the last card, but stopped himself at the last moment. Instead, he leaned forward again, supporting his elbows on the table and putting his miss-matched hands together. Sebastian noticed that his dark skin was decorated with thin, intricate patterns tattooed in black, and wondered what the symbols meant.

“Some things never change,” Hamilton said. “You know, like, the cards used to be different. In the old world, they had other symbols on them, things that were magic to _them_. But this is the one that hasn’t changed.”

Sebastian looked down at the couple embracing on the card. There was a subtle sheen to it but nothing silvery or golden like with the other two. It was the dull colors around them that made the couple stand out all the more.

“The Lovers, man, that’s always been the same. In the old times shit was different, but some things just don’t change.”

Seb nodded slowly, and copied Hamilton’s movements when the seer raised his glass to him and drained it in one gulp. His drink burned going down, but it was just as well that he finished it; he felt a pressing need to go home.

“Go.” Hamilton waved him off. “You’ve got better things to do, and I’ve got clients waiting.”

He glanced to his right and Seb followed his line of sight. The blond bartender was keeping a close eye on them and, at the look from Hamilton, started moving gracefully towards them. Seb looked down to the table and realized the cards were already gone, and Hamilton was once again shuffling his deck of normal playing cards.

“Be seein’ you,” he said, starting to count out two hands onto the table.

Sebastian said nothing, but got out of the booth and was out on the street before he could really remember how he’d gotten there. It was darker now, fall making night come faster, despite the lights from all the bars and clubs, the low-flying transports passing by above him and the highrise buildings lit like concrete christmas trees. He flicked up his collar against the wind and started walking, his bed, his lover’s embrace, and his future calling him home.

\- The End -

**Author's Note:**

> All in good fun, as per usual! :)  
> Thanks for the read! <3


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